More than half of secondary school pupils in the EU study two foreign languages, with Malta placing with the top six states.

According to Eurostat data, in 2014 all secondary school pupils learnt at least two foreign languages in Luxembourg, followed by more than 98 per cent of the students in Finland and Italy. Meanwhile, at least 96 per cent of students in Estonia, more than 95 per cent in Romania, and 94.3 per cent in Malta also studied a second foreign language.

In contrast, fewer than 10 per cent of pupils were studying two or more languages in Hungary, Ireland and Austria.

In Malta, despite being an official language alongside Maltese, English is counted as a foreign language.

The second most common foreign language taught in Malta was Italian, with nearly 60 per cent of the students learning it at secondary school level.

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